The Delhi High Court recently issued summoned to Ramacivil India Construction Private Limited, who constructed the Green View project at Gurugram which has been considered unfit for human habitation.
A single-judge Justice Yogesh Khanna has issued the summoned based on the suit filed by National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) seeking damages of Rs 750 crores from the firm.
The single bench directed the Ramacivil Private Limited to file its response by the next date of hearing, i.e., on 27th July, 2023.
The bench was informed that Ramacivil was responsible for constructing the RCC-structure of the National Buildings Construction Corporation’s (NBCC) Green View project. However, the structure quickly began exhibiting traits of a hazardous building, which was verified through comprehensive testing by CSIR-CBRI & IIT-Roorkee.
The safety of human lives cannot be compromised, and the occupants of the building were evacuated due to safety concerns. Several images of the fallen concrete pieces were also placed on the Court file.
It was claimed by some reports that the NBCC Green View project was introduced in 2010 and spans over 18 acres of land. It contains 784 flats and 139 apartments that cater to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
The developer sold approximately 260 flats, but in 2021, IIT-Delhi discovered several flaws in the building, deeming it “uninhabitable.” NBCC has also requested exemption from pre-institution mediation, stating that the lawsuit for recovery has arisen in highly unusual circumstances, with the primary issue being the risk to human life, which cannot be resolved simply through mediation.
The bench, therefore, granted the request and stated that since the photographs on record show the building’s dilapidated condition which pose a significant danger to human habitation, as well as to passersby and nearby structures, such as a school, and given the urgent requests made in this application, pre-mediation in these circumstances will not be beneficial because there is nothing to mediate regarding the request for demolition. Thus, the plaintiff was allowed to file the lawsuit without pre-institution mediation.
